A source has told TKB that the Warriors and Bulls were getting ready to pull the trigger on a Kirk Hinrich-Al Harrington swap earlier this month right before the Bulls guard suffered an injury to his thumb. Hinrich damaged ligaments to his thumb in a win against Phoenix a few weeks ago and required surgery. He will be sidelined for up to 3 months.

The Warriors then went into a stalemate with Harrington until trading him to the Knicks on Friday for Jamal Crawford. Harrington told reporters he wanted to be dealt to New York “back in April.”

Hinrich would have fit a bigger need for the Warriors at point guard, but the combination of Harrington’s hold out and Hinrich’s injury forced them into going after Crawford, who Donnie Walsh resisted on trading before okaying a deal after Crawford’s poor performance in Boston last week.

The source assured TKB that if Hinrich stayed healthy he would have been dealt to Golden State for Harrington and the Knicks would have had to keep Crawford.

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By the way, all you people who are doubting Lebron comes to New York because they won’t be able to afford a team to surround him because they’ll need a second superstar need to explain to me why player like Amare Stoudemire wouldn’t take a “reduced” salary to compete for championships with the King and play for Mike D’Antoni again, then get taken care of later. Is that so hard to believe?